Brett the Vet

Friday, December 4, 2015

I have been a vet now for 20 years and have lived in the Valley for 13 years. We moved here to be close to family and enjoy the Arizona desert lifestyle. One of those desert perks was being able to be outside without the bugs. No Mosquitoes, few flies, just pleasant. One of the other things I noticed coming from Texas to Arizona was the fact that Heart worm disease was almost non-existent. In Texas all pets needed Preventive Heartworm medications otherwise it was a matter of time before they got the debilitating Heartworm Disease. Heartworms are a real worm about 6-12 inches long living inside your dogs heart. Ewww....Sick! Heartworms cause severe damage to your pet if untreated and the treatment for the disease can run thousands of dollars. In Arizona, the lack of Mosquitoes meant the lack of Heartworm disease and lack of awareness about the disease. Prevention is easy many pet owners have not been using prevention and veterinarians in Arizona have not been making a strong recommendation to put pets on Heartworm prevention.....including me. My approach has changed. The facts have changed. The last few years we have learned and confirmed more Heartworm cases that originate in Arizona. We are seeing and feeling the bites of mosquitoes more often. Our practice has confirmed several cases in just 5 months. Research on our indigenous population of coyotes reveal 15% are positive carriers for Heartworm. Heartworm Prevention is simple and 20-30 times less expensive that treatment. Start protecting your pet for Heartworm disease. Have fun. Be Safe. Until next time Brett the Vet and the friendly team at Arizona Animal Hospital

Friday, October 23, 2015

Every year thousands of dogs are infected with Valley Fever in Arizona. What we found over the years are few things that can help treat and cure several dogs even the most severe cases from this dangerous, debilitating and deadly disease. We wanted to make sure that pet owners understand the disease, understand what to look for in their pet if you think they might have valley fever and know what best in practice treatment options are available. We will talk about our approach to successfully managing and treating valley fever. Let's start by talking about the fungus itself. Valley Fever is a fungus that lives in the soil in this arid environment. It displays active behavior most often in the summer months during our monsoon season where high winds and rain can activate and release the fungus in the soil. The Valley Fever fungus or collectively referred to as Coccidioidomycosis is airborne and inhaled by pets and people. In Arizona where many of our residents are snowbirds or new to the area their immune system may be naive to this fungal infection which can make them more susceptible to getting the active disease. The same is true for pets new to our state.

It's very difficult to prevent exposure to the disease because of the airborne nature of the fungus and most dogs constantly have their nose to the ground sniffing smelling and inadvertently inhaling the fungal spores into their lungs. Dogs that dig will also expose themselves to the fungus and finally with all the recent and continued building in the area construction sites will raid us into the air creating a health risk to pets and people in terms of valley fever. There is no way to prevent the disease but you can minimize it by keeping indoors during monsoon season avoiding being outdoors during windy days and being mindful when you're outside digging or working with the native soil. When a dog get sick from valley fever the early signs of disease can be as simple as feeling tired and possibly a high temperature. Most often people bring their dog to the veterinarian because it has a cough and is not feeling well. When we evaluate dogs for Valley Fever the way we diagnose it is through a blood test and the clinical signs. Blood testing looks for exposure in your immune system to tell you whether or not there's an active infection.

When a diagnosis of valley fever is made, our treatment of choice is Fluconazole. We treat with this antifungal drug for two to six months depending on severity of disease. Fluconazole historically is a human drug that was very expensive and cost prohibitive to use when treating dogs, so many veterinarians reached for non FDA-approved compounded medications in effort to save money. This is a trend that continues today but is not recommended as compounds again are not FDA approved and cannot be made to the same quality standards as the human FDA approved brand or generic drugs. Generic and Brand Fluconazole result in better patient outcomes. If you are currently using a compounded medication to treat your dog with Valley Fever and not seeing good results, switching will often times make a difference. In addition to fluconazole we have other drugs we will use if needed to help control or treat disease including injectable antifungals for more serious cases. It is important to note that there are no FDA-approved drugs for use in dogs with Valley Fever so the use of these Human-labeled FDA-approved drugs is considered "Off-label".

Nutrition is another key element of recovery from Valley Fever. Ultra-premium dog food (found most often in the high-end pet stores) has benefits. Most important is to keep your pets appetite strong. Certain supplements designed to support the immune system also have shown to speed the recovery from Valley Fever. Most of these are oral and some are injections. Finally, the new advancements in veterinary medicine with immune-modulating drugs have shown positive results and should be considered for the toughest chronic cases not responding to traditional therapy.

Implementing a multi-mode approach to treatment of valley fever along with a quick and speedy diagnosis generally results in a more rapid and successful recovery. If you have a dog with Valley Fever the key things to do are change from compound to brand or generic Fluconazole, improve the nutrition and try a couple of the key supplements designed to support the immune system. At Arizona Animal Hospital in the North Scottsdale, Cave Creek/Carefree area we have focused and have found what we believe is the perfect mix nutritionally along with the proper medications to enhance good patient outcomes. If you have a dog or cat with Valley Fever and are not seeing good results, please consider contacting us today. For more information please go to our website.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

I wanted to write about a topic that has
hit close to home. There has been a string of coyote attacks in our
neighborhood. We have lost 3 dogs and 2 others have been severely
injured. Even more concerning is how and why these attacks have occurred.
In all cases, a pack of 3-5 coyotes have jumped the fence of the homeowners
property to get to the pet. In 2 of these instances the pet owner was in
the back yard. The coyotes were unafraid of the people when attempts to
ward them off were made and in one instance they stood down an owners attempt
to scare them off. This owner and her young daughter were placed at
risk.

Our pets and our children are generally
considered safe in our fenced in back yards. This new coyote behavior
changes how a community thinks and lives. Discussions with our Arizona
Gish and Game experts who visited our neighborhood have seen this behavior in
coyotes in other neighborhoods and know it is a result of people feeding the
wildlife. When fed, the coyotes in the area see all other dogs as
competition and territorial aggression behavior sets in. They kill pets
because we feed them. The coyotes are subsequently killed by
people/officials as a means to protect the public.

I want to make a plea to people living out here on
the edge where community meets nature. Please don't feed the
wildlife. Please don't leave food out for them. They have plenty to
eat. Our pets and our children and our wildlife are all at risk.
Respectfully to all who live in our community.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

With the rising costs of Pet care, Pet owners are asking more aboutwellness pans and Pet insurance. There also seems to be a lot of confusionas to what a pet owner needs or may need when signing up for a PetInsurance or Pet Wellness plan. In a nutshell, wellness plans cover theannual maintenance, things like vaccines where Pet Insurance is for themajor medical conditions that threaten your pets life and often times yourwallet. The business of selling Wellness Plans occurs at the veterinaryoffice and is designed to promote customer compliance in preventive careand client loyalty to the hospital. They do not work outside of thehospital from where they are sold. Pet Insurance is universal, designedto protect you and your pt if a major illness/injury happens. With petinsurance, the pet owner is responsible for paying the vet bills up frontand all claims are paid to the pet owner by the insurance company after thecare is given. It is important to know that not all claims are covered, soselect your plan wisely. My thoughts are that in general, we can allafford the basic annual care for our pets and those should be considerednormal "out of pocket" expense we budget for. I don't recommend wellnessplans because many pet owners may not need the services covered under them,so all the "Breakage" is kept by the seller. Instead, I recommendinvesting in a Pet Insurance policy at a young age, when your pet has hadno pre-existing conditions for the insurance, meaning no claim rejections.We all can budget for general problems, but its the big issues, thelife-threatening ones that where we don't ever want to have to make adecision about care because of our budget. I don't mind the "Breakage"with pet insurance because like my auto insurance policy, I have it but Ihope I never have to use it.Have Fun and Be SafeBrett the Vet

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

It's a fact, we have a lot of venomous snakes in our community and a dog isbitten everyday around here. Snakebites are emergencies and your pet needsto come in immediately for care. Antivenom is given to counteract thepoison and results are generally positive. Smaller dogs are at greaterrisk. The Rattlesnake vaccine is not a substitute for emergency care.What it does seem to do is reduce the need for antivenom. The vaccine is$32-$40 dollars around here and a vial of antivenom is $500 dollars. Somedogs require 3-5 vials of antivenom without the rattlesnake vaccine verses1-2 vials on average in my experience with the vaccine. In my opinion, ifyour pet is at high risk for snakebite, the Rattlesnake Vaccine in thiscase is recommended to protect both your pet and your wallet.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Wow, a month has passed since my last post. Time has been flying by. Wehave been so fortunate to be busy here at Arizona Animal Hospital. Theresponse to our practice has been excellent during the slow summer season.Pet owners seem to be happy with our hospital and the way we are conductingour business. Our key objective of providing quality service at a valuableprice are playing out well. One noteworthy example is our X-rays.Building a new veterinary Hospital means having a choice to purchase newequipment. Our X-ray machine is the first HD (High Definition) X-ray unitavailable in veterinary medicine and is the new standard in humanhealthcare. It takes clearly better images than other machines which Ibelieve is improving our ability to find problems in Pets. We have pricedthis superior HD X-ray service below the market price in the area. Wewanted this technology to be accessible to everyone. Stop by this summerand take our Hospital tour and see the difference for yourself. We areopen to all residents of Carefree, Cave Creek, North Scottsdale, DesertMountain and surrounding Communities. A big thanks to everyone for yoursupport. Its been a joy re-connecting with you all.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Alert! Another Desert Dog Danger Update!Monsoon season is here and so is another desert danger we see. The Desert(Bufo) Toad. They come out in this more humid weather, generally in theevening and their numbers wax and wane every year and it seems we have abunch in 2015. I remember 12 years ago it was raining toads here, or so itseemed like. I was enjoying dinner outside at a local Cave Creekrestaurant and noticed these large creatures encompassing the patio diningarea. they are chubby, squatty and unseemly large, measuring up to 7inches in diameter! They have a deadly neurotoxin on their skin. CuriousCanines who get a taste of this toad (Usually at night) will start tosalivate excessively and in no time can be having life-threateningseizures. Here is what you need to do. First - If you suspect toadpoisoning, immediately begin to rinse your dogs mouth with water forseveral minutes, diluting the toxin in their mouth. Then head straight toyour Veterinarian for pro-active care. The Emergency Animal Clinic onScottsdale Road and Williams has expert critical care specialists who knowhow to handle these cases if severe.

Brett the Vet's desert danger ranking for the Desert Toad is 4.5/5 on thedesert danger scale because these creatures seem innocuous, are a lessfrequent visitor and we don't think about them as being a threat like we dorattlesnakes.